Drumcorps, or more accurately Drum and Bugle Corps (D&BC), is an activity based from the early fife and drum and bugle bands of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Members of many of these were grown men. Later the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), and other civic organizations created their own auxiliary youth groups or junior corps. Over time, these senior and junior groups changed their venue from marching in parades to performing precision drills for competition. In the early 1970s, faced with stringent rules imposed on the junior corps by the VFW, and an activity that was dying, several top junior D&BCs formed Drum Corps International (DCI) as an alternate sanctioning organization. DCI was almost immediately successful and allowed greater artistic freedom to the activity that has continued to this day and allowed Junior Drum and Bugle Corps to be the most successful form of this activity. Membership in a Junior Corps is restricted to those 21 and under on the last day of the DCI Final competition each year.
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